Women can spin very well; but they cannot make a good book of cookery.

Books to judicious compilers, are useful; to particular arts and professions, they are absolutely necessary; to men of real science, they are tools: but more are tools to them.

Truth, such as is necessary to the reputation of life, is always found where it is honestly sought.

The fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no temptation, can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned.

In the condition of men, it frequently happens that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity; and the gloom of calamity is cheered by secret radiations of hope and comfort; as in the works of nature, the bog is sometimes covered with flowers, and the mine concealed in the barren crags.

Ignorance cannot always be inferred from inaccuracy; knowledge is not always present.

We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to remember.